when we woke up this morning, we realized it was thanksgiving…we also realized that we had no groceries and it would probably be difficult to order take-out on thanksgiving evening. so, we decided, “let’s run out to the grocery store this morning and get some food. every grocery store is open for at least a few hours to accomodate last-minute pie and stuffing cooking emergencies.” boy, were we wrong. apparently all of western massachusetts shuts down for all of thanksgiving day. even big stores like wal-mart were closed.

luckily i remembered atkins farms country market. they were open for just a few hours. so we (along with the rest of western mass) quickly headed there.

another hitch in our food-getting plan was that we have no access to fire in our kitchen. it is going to be a month before we can use our stove, which leaves us with only an oven and microwave as cooking options. this wouldn’t be too big a deal if we were in a grocery store with lots of food options, but we weren’t. and, finally, most of our pantry items are still in boxes in new jersey so we lacked things that one takes for granted when cooking such as foil, salt and pepper, spices, etc.

here is what we finally settled upon (notice the boxes upon boxes still unpacked in the background):

salad with newly bought dressing, microwaved stuffing, baked potatoes baked in a springform pan rather than foil, mac and cheese made by the fine people at atkins market.  thanksgiving dinner was saved after all.  yummy and creative.

this year we are thankful for each person who has been supportive of our move north.  thank you!